The Official We Hunted the Mammoth Book Recommendation Thread

So hey. I’m not officially back on duty yet — I’ll be back sometime in the next couple of days — but I thought I’d seed a little discussion here with what I’m calling The Official We Hunted the Mammoth Book Recommendation Thread.

Which is pretty self-explanatory, so have at it! Any genre, old or new. I will probably gather up the various suggestions for a later post or page.

And, yep, the book in the pic up there is a real book that exists, written by a fella named Peter Cheyney, and which you can buy on Amazon for the low, low price of $2,986.69. No, really.

That’s for a new copy. If you’re some kind of cheapskate, you could pick up a used copy instead, for a relatively thrifty $86.90.

Here are the first couple of paragraphs of the book, courtesy of Amazon, so you can have some idea what you’ll be getting for your money:

Is it hot!

I aint never been in hell, but Im tellin you that I bet it aint any hotter than this Californian desert in July.

I am drivin along past Indio an I figure that soon I am goin to see the Palm Springs lights. An I am goin some the speedometer says eighty. If it wasnt so hot it would be a swell night; but there aint any air, an there was a baby sand storm this afternoon that caught me asleep an I gotta lump of the Mojave desert or whatever they call it stuck right at the back of my throat

I strongly urge you to go to Amazon and click on the “look inside” tab to read more of Mr. Cheyney’s hardboiled prose.

Within the few short pages available in Amazon’s preview, the book’s narrator (tough guy private dick Lemmy Caution) not only manages to eat a lump of sand; he also orders a hamburger (at a hot dog joint) and some ham and eggs (at a second joint). It’s not clear if he eats any of the hamburger before splitting, but you’ll be glad to know that he at least starts eating the ham and eggs.

Oh, he also calls a guy a “sissy” and gets his ass kicked.

I know the book sounds truly amazing, but before you click the “buy” button, let me make a little counteroffer: if you’re really intent on spending $2,986.69 on a book titled “Dames Don’t Care,” pay me that amount, and I will write an entire new book by that name in the style of the original, more or less. For $86.90, I will write a (very) short story in the same style.

Or you could post book recommendations in the comments below. That’s good, too.

Comments

I can’t recommend Catherynne M. Valente enough. I suppose I should especially shout out “Six-Gun Snow White” ( republished by Saga Press last year), “Deathless”, “Radiance”, and the two books of “The Orphan’s Tales”.

Recently I picked up and enjoyed Scott Hawkins’ “The Library at Mount Char” and Lauren Beukes “The Shining Girls”, and I reread Neal Stephenson’s “Zodiac” and enjoyed it possibly even more than on first read.

I’ve read some appalling stuff lately. The last ones that left a favourable impression were ‘Gideon Mack’ by James Robertson, ‘The Owl’ by Bob Forward, which I glanced at in a second-hand shop 22 years ago and recently discovered again. ‘Old Man’s War’ by John Scalzi, which I only bought because I figured that if Vox Day hates something then it must be good (needless to say, it was), and the massive pile-up that is ‘The Taste of Fear’ by Jeremy Bates.

‘Dames Don’t Care’ was written by an Englishman who originally wrote in the American thriller style to win a private bet. If you are interested, it can be acquired on Amazon for as little as $11.95, or $7.19 electronically. The big price for that particular edition is down to Amazon having only a few copies in stock. See also the much joke-reviewed ‘How to Avoid Huge Ships’ by Captain Trimmer.

I’m reading mostly nonfiction recently. Right now, it’s In the Sleep Room, about a Canadian mental-health institution’s involvement in CIA brainwashing experiments. Before that, it was another book on the subject: Father, Son and CIA.

I’m currently rereading A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan. Even though it is a fantasy, the main character is a woman who is going against social norms to study dragons. I haven’t read the second book in the series yet, but I want to take it with me when I’m traveling in a few weeks (which is why I’m rereading the first one now).

Since I’m going by PaganReader on here, I’m definitely going to have to recommend some books. For fantasy, I would recommend The Others series by Anne Bishop. It starts with Written in Red. Content warnings for self-harm, some racism analogies, and (implied) rape. It is not explicit, only mentioned in passing, but it is definitely there. I would also recommend The Incarnations by Susan Barker. Content warnings for pretty much everything with that one -rape, torture, incest, suicide, murder, cannabilism, racism, castration, starvation, genocide, and probably more stuff that I can’t remember.
For non-fiction, I would recommend Devil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three, by Mara Leveritt.
I’m currently reading The Life and the Adventures of a Haunted Convict, by Austin Reed. It’s the prison memoir of a free African American man living in New York before the Civil War. It tells how from a young age he was bounced between one unpaid forced labor situation to another, (which wasn’t considered slavery for some reason), whether as an ‘apprentice’ or in prision.
If you like (cozy) mysteries, Joanne Fluke’s Hannah Swensen mysteries, starting with Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder, and Lillian Jackson Braun’s The Cat Who books come to mind. The first one is The Cat Who Could Read Backwards.

I can’t believe I forgot to mention Felines Of New York: A Glimpse into the Lives of New York’s Feline Inhabitants by Jim Tews. (Also check out felinesofnewyork.com) It’s full of adorable cats. I also like I Could Pee on This: and Other Poems by Cats by Franesco Marciuliano, a book of cat poetry. Cat Talk: What Your Cat is Trying to Tell You by Carole Wilbourn is another great cat book.

I tend to read two books at the same time – one non-fiction and one fiction. At the moment I’m on The Three Christs of Ypsilanti and I just finished Little, Big, and I haven’t been able to decide which fiction I’ll start next. I’m ahead of schedule on those, and I expected to finish that around the election conventions – I have a weird tradition of rereading Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72 every election year since the first one I could vote in, when my uncle got me the book.

From this thread I looked up We Have Always Lived in the Castle, which I have somehow never read, and I’m kind of itching to now. It looks right up my alley.

In line with the original post though, there is a podcast I absolutely love called Tomefoolery. Description from the site: “Twice a month, comedian Cody Melcher invites a couple of funny friends over to talk about a really really weird book they’ve all just read. Funny people, crazy books.” He did an episode with the hosts of the Lady to Lady podcast on a book called Let’s Make Mary (“A gentleman’s guide to seduction in 8 easy lessons”), and sometimes he puts his copy of books they do up for sale, signed by the guests. I now own that book. It is hilariously ridiculous.

There are sellers on Amazon that use algorithms to set their prices, based partially on where other sellers have set their prices. This can have hilarious effects when no sellers are offering the book except ones that use auto-pricing. These are usually drop-shippers, too. If you look on the page that gives you the list of sellers and prices, you’ll see that there are four sellers, all with hundreds of reviews, and all priced within 2% of each other.

I’m reading Italo Calvino’s Cosmicomics (which includes “All At One Point”, which is utterly brilliant and one of my fave all-time microfictions), rereading Jane Eyre, and just finished Ordinary Wolves by Seth Kantner.

One of the twins just walked in brandishing a Tintin book, so I guess that’s next on the reading list.

I will always recommend Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. One of my favorites.

I forgot about the Cherie Priest books. I love her writing, and her Eden Moore series is very Southern Gothic. I have to get the ones after Boneshaker; haven’t read them yet, but I really want to.

Also, JoeB, thank you for mentioning Pickman’s Model. I didn’t know about it before, but it really fleshes out a reference in Fallout 4; there’s a Pickman’s Gallery, full of horrific paintings, and then the basement is full of additional nastiness. I especially liked that “Ghouls Feeding” was mentioned, and the Gallery is in the North End. (I love the Fallout series, as flawed as it can be. I hope they have more DLC like the Far Harbor one; the other two were ok, but I like content and stories, like the DLC for New Vegas.)

I’m rereading the Tiffany Aching series in Discworld, although slowly because there’s so much other stuff that takes my time. I recently read We’re All Damaged by Matthew Norman, which was pretty good, and Pamela Fagan Hutchins has an enjoyable cozy mystery series. Keeley Bates is another cozy mystery writer that I’ve enjoyed.

Obviously I don’t have any new stuff to recommend, but my classic recommendation are the original Oz books. A surprising number of people, even fantasy fans never read them. As with many other old timey authors, Baum is problematic due to some racist viewpoints, but fortunately, they only occasionally show in the books. The series does have a lot of socialist, feminist, and anti-war stuff in it though! His take on the military in Ozma of Oz and Tik-Tok in Oz is particularly hilarious. Also, in Tik-Tok in Oz there’s a magical device that sounds a lot like a cell phone. It’s really charming to read. These days it’s much more popular for fantasy to be kind of dark, so I fear Oz will be doomed to fall even further out of favor. I’m fine with darker stories. I am after all a big ASOIAF fan, but it’s nice to have a series that’s light and positive without being self-righteous or cheesy too.

Maybe I should read those books again. They were a big part of what kicked off my love and reading. Maybe they’ll get me back into it again.

One of my other favorites would be Flannery O’Connor’s collected works. Not an obscure choice by any means, but I guess I’m boring!

My favorite horror story is The Willows by Algernon Blackwood. If you’re like me, a city person who finds the wilderness a bit intimidating, this one will really get to you. You can find it free online pretty easily.

Also, Anansi Boys, the sequel (ish) to American Gods. It’s not as epic, but it’s arguably a better and tighter story. It follows some of Mr. Nancy’s kids around.

I preferred Anansi Boys to American Gods for those same reasons. Ultimately it comes down to whether you prefer a big, epic story or a small, personal story, but for me, “guy finds out he’s the son of a god and has to save the world” feels pretty commonplace, whereas “guy finds out he’s the son of a god and has to deal with family drama” feels a lot more unique.

I read one of the Oz books to my son, back when he was still young enough to enjoy having me read to him (he was, what, 10? 11?), and it involved a character I believe called “Raggedy Man”, who possessed an object that, when brandished, would make everybody LOVE him. It was called the “Love Magnet”, and every time it showed up in the book, I dropped my voice like Barry White and said, “the Looooove Magnet”, and my son would go, “bowm chicka bow wow”. We were HILARIOUS. Lots more laughing than reading with that one.

That said, I’m reading “Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in School” (I’m an educator) alternating with “For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood – And The Rest Of Y’all, Too”, and waiting eagerly for the most recent Ben Aaronovitch book (“The Hanging Tree” – if you haven’t read these, and you’re a fan of urban fantasy, you really should) to arrive in my library account.

Oh, damn, that’s what I get for jumping in before reading previous suggestions — Dalillama already mentioned the “Rivers of London” series (Triffic! Really!), and I was just reminded of one of my favorite semi-local authors (Portland OR), Brian Doyle. I read and loved “The Plover”, “Martin Marten”, and “Mink River”, and I’m eagerly awaiting the arrival of “Chicago” in my library. Lovely atmospheric straight-up fiction, human beings talking to each other, and above it all the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

I love the Oz books! They’re, well, gentle, in a way that most children’s literature isn’t. The one where the Gales lose the farm and Ozma brings them all to Oz is my favorite. And Ozma had beautiful dark hair, just like my mother.

I’ve got my fingers in a number of proverbial pies (…or…actual books…) right now.

A friend of mine and I are reading The Heart of the Artichoke by Elena Poniatowska. It is a collection of short stories, originally in Spanish (the version my friend is reading). I’m reading the English for us to compare/contrast. A very good read.

I also recently finished Sun, Stone, and Shadows: 20 Great Mexican Short Stories. Also a wonderful collection, mostly of older stories, though.

I started, but need to get back into, Backlash by Susan Faludi.

Oh, and I’m finishing off a collection of John Steinbeck’s dispatches, written when he was in Vietnam and reflecting on the state of the country during the war (which his sons were in)

OK! My earlier comment on page 1 has been allowed through moderation (because of name change/last time I posted was like 2 years ago), but I would also like to add that I’m currently reading Inferno by Dan Brown because I want to complain about the changes in the movie when it comes out. Well, that and listen to more of Hans Zimmer’s soundtracks. At this point, I think it’s safe to say Dan Brown has a Robert Langdon Formula:

Seife’s “Proofiness” and “Zero” are good non-fiction. You’ll never trust quoted numbers again.

I like Jack Campbell’s Lost Fleet series.

Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson’s “Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me)” is a great exploration of current media and political culture. Similarly, Schultz’s “Being Wrong (Adventures in the Margin of Error)” overlaps a bit, but describes many other situations.

Anne McCaffrey is magnificent, I started with the Harper Hall trilogy and went on to read everything she had in print at the time.

I am currently working my way through Seanan McGuires urban fantasy, I am loving the Incryptid series.

I have a weakness for well written kids lit (so much is NOT well written, sadly. I work in a bookstore and it’s almost painful sometimes to see what two dimensional dreck washes up on the shores of my beloved children’s department.) . I am really loving Jonathan Stroud’s Lockwood and co series. Majorly creepy ghost stories with an excellently characterized young lady ghost hunter as protagonist.

I also adore The Westing Game as an intro to mystery for young readers. I think I just like that it treats kids as though they are perfectly capable of thinking through the puzzle and grasping complex concepts.

Huh. Imagine that, every one of my recommendations features smart, capable female protagonists. Who woulda thought?

Oh! I nearly forgot to talk about Gail Carriger! She does these steampunkish teen novels about a young lady who is sent to finishing school because her family thinks she is quite unladylike. When she arrives, she finds that “finishing” has another entirely different meaning at Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. Etiquette &Espionage is the first.

In the nonfiction arena, I recently read 1491 by Charles Mann. He challenges a lot of commonly held views of Native American culture pre-Columbus. Much of the information he presents supports the idea that the Americas were quite civilized and probably culturally equal to the cities of Europe of the time.

@ Eyes on the Right
I just read Angry White Men, and I really liked it. I feel like it helps me understand my dad a little better. I’m only half-kidding (at most) when I say that-he’s very conservative and could be said to have some similarities to some of the men Kimmel profiles, and the book really helped me better understand that many of these men are as angry and resistant to societal change as they are because they’re afraid of becoming irrelevant.

Well… yes and no, but let’s avoid spoilers! The book is indeed fantastic, and I’m looking forward to the second volume. You can read a bit of it over on Nora’s Patreon, if you have the courage (I’m avoiding it until I can read the whole thing).

Dalillama:

Also Wool , by Hugh Howey, which opens up in a post-apocalyptic community living in what might be an old missile silo.

The whole series is worth reading. The writing can be a little uneven, and I’m not sure the basic premise makes any sense, but it’s a good read nevertheless.

I’m currently reading The Fireman, by Joe Hill (Stephen King’s son). The world (ours, near future) is in danger of ending, due to an epidemic which causes spontaneous human combustion. I won’t make the mistake of recommending it before I’ve finished it, but so far it’s very good.

I used to almost inhale a book in a single sitting, so it was rarer for me to say I was “currently reading” anything. But noawadays I seem to only read on my commute, and this makes me feel strangely guilty, like I’m betraying my bibliophile younger self.

For my money, the best horror story out there is The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas.

Never thought of that as horror, but it can certainly be taken that way. Particularly when you reflect on what it means for your own life. Le Guin is masterful, as always. In just a few words, she paints a picture so vivid you feel you’ve always known that place, and yearn to live there… and then she slips the knife in, so sharp you almost don’t feel it at first.

I will second (third? fourth?) Steven Erikson’s series Malazan Book of the Fallen. Bonus: series is complete so you don’t have to wait around for the next book to be published LIKE I HAD TO FOR YEARS ARGHHH SO FRUSTRATING.

Also, The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes is amazing. She’s published three other books. I’ve read two of them: Zoo City (won the Arthur C Clarke Award) and Broken Monsters (which is fantastic). Bonus: she’s from my homeland.

@Josh
I love Stephen King-I feel that he does a terrific job of writing realistic characters in fantastical and horrific situations. The closest I’ve come to a bucket list is that I’ve made it an admittedly very lofty goal to own one copy of each of his works by the end of my life. Have you read his latest short story collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams yet? It’s great, and “The Dune” has probably the twistiest ending I’ve read so far this year.

@Alan
How big a population are we talking? What types of technology do they have access to? How much collateral damage is acceptable? Do you mean just the sapient, tool using population, or everything that lives?

Depending on the answers a nearby (within <30 light years) supernova will probably do the trick; enough gamma radiation will kill pretty much anything that's not underwater. Realistically, it'll probably take a couple days before everyone actually dies, but the damage is going to be done basically instantly, and since it's approaching at the speed of light, there's really no way to get advance warning that it's coming, barring some kind of superscience.

I’ll check that out. A super nova induced mass extinction (well, gamma ray burst anyway) was something that I used once before in a story. Some very nice scientists helped me out with describing exactly what it would look like. They also spotted a huge flaw in my premise, but they were very clever.

@ dalillama

It needs to be able to be triggered instantly and kill off every conscious human before they realise; collateral damage is irrelevant. Appreciate that might be a tall order. Just has to be theoretically possible; the technology they have will be whatever it needs to be. 🙂

@Alan
Short of a supernova, a bigass flare of the local sun would do the trick just fine. Alternately, accelerate a moderate-sized rock to a significant fraction of c on the right vector.. This has a significant chance of actually destroying the planet, but you did say that collateral damage was no object.

ETA: Wait, I missed the ‘triggered instantly’. In that case, a big wodging chunk of antimatter in some kind of containment vessel will work; if it’s big enough, the caveats above regarding relativistic rocks applies.

Anti-matter might be a good one. Stick some sort of matter/anti-matter bombs in orbital satellites and then make up some effect analogous to EMP (that actually kills people)? Yeah, like that. Or might go with some sort of ‘dark energy/regular energy’ thing. It’s a bit of a maguffin so don’t need to explain how it works, just that it does.

Cool, cheers.

ETA: just realised that ‘orbital’ is a bit redundant. That’s the level of scientific literacy you can expect from me though.

It’s called ‘a horrible wave of powerful gamma rays’ and you don’t need to make it up; it’s one of the side effects of a big matter-antimatter reaction. Also, if there’s enough of it up there, ordinary heat could get pretty fierce too.

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